


Contact

by paperjamBipper



Category: Infinity Train (Cartoon)
Genre: Cuddles, F/M, Fluff, Pining, Sleepovers, Sleepy Kisses, The Author Is Touch Starved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:41:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23941747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperjamBipper/pseuds/paperjamBipper
Summary: It's three in the morning, and Jesse can't sleep.
Relationships: Jesse Cosay/Lake
Comments: 21
Kudos: 199





	Contact

**Author's Note:**

> It's cruel irony, really, that the idea for this story came to me the other night when I was having trouble sleeping.

Whenever she slept, Lake used to dream of running.

Running from Tulip, running from the Flecs, running from the train, running from everything. As soon as she was out cold, her feet would hit the ground, and she would run as fast as her legs could carry her. Never to anywhere specific, just as long as she never looked back at where she came from. She could sprint, and sprint, and never run out of breath, or get stopped by some invisible wall or forced to the ground by those who were chasing after her.

It was freeing. It was _exhilarating._ And when she still worked as Tulip’s reflection, she slept any chance she could get. When she was sure Tulip was too busy working on her game to notice her reflection was missing from her computer screen, or any time she flicked the lights in her room off, Lake took what little chance she had and curled up to sleep until some _rude_ Flec would come by and force her awake to work.

Sleep was the closest thing she could ever imagine that she’d have to escapism. She had no way of knowing that damned train would have a portal to the mirror realm in it, let alone that Tulip would even board the train and find her.

Even so, after she managed to escape, she couldn’t afford to let her guard down. The Flecs were after her, and she never had any way of knowing which denizens would promise to keep her location a secret and which ones would call the Flecs on her on sight. It was becoming increasingly more difficult for Lake to maintain her grasp on any sense of escapism, and even more so to find any opportunity to find sleep. 

Finding Alan Dracula was one of the best things that could’ve happened to her on that train. The fact that he could turn not only himself invisible but also those he traveled with made her feel safer than words could describe. 

Literally, Lake supposed, considering the fact that she fell asleep on him about ten minutes after meeting him.

It probably did wonders that he could also turn into a pile of pillows and comforters at will. 

Nowadays, ever since she’s gotten off the train, she’s had a regular sleep schedule for the first time in her life, and she’d be lying to herself if she tried claiming that it isn’t what she’s most thankful for. Now that she has nothing to run from, no need for escapism, Lake’s sleep is dreamless, and the most peaceful it’s ever been.

...Unless someone tries to shake her awake. 

“Lake?” Jesse’s raspy voice calls out to her, and he gently shakes her shoulders a second time. “Are you awake?”

She sits up, rubbing at her eyes. “I am now”, she replies, her voice equally as raspy as his. She has to squint, to really make him out, since it’s still pitch black in the room, and notices that he’s got a pillow under one arm and blanket under the other. “What time is it?”

“Almost three in the morning,” Jesse replies. “I couldn’t sleep.”

She raises an eyebrow at him, even though she’s sure he can’t make her face out very well either. “...and you decided the best solution for that was to…make sure I couldn’t sleep either?”

He shrugs as best as he can. “Well, I, uh, wanted to come ask you if it was okay if I came out here and slept with you, instead.” He rubs at the back of his neck. “I didn’t want to spook you, just sneaking out here and setting up camp next to you”. 

Okay, that gets a snort out of her. But she _is_ sleeping on _his_ couch in the middle of the living room, so it’s not like he hasn’t walked in and out on her while she was sleeping hundreds of times before. 

“Are you okay?” 

“Yeah, yeah…” Jesse tries to dismiss the question. “I just...had a nightmare. I’ll be fine. I’ve just been having trouble getting back to sleep.” 

“Fair enough,” she replies, because if he’s coming directly to her about it instead of his parents then it probably had something to do _with_ her, or the train, or the Flecs, and the _last_ thing she wants is this long, complicated conversation about how yes, she could’ve died, yes, she can take care of herself, yes, he knows that, yes, it’s still scary, yes, nightmares are weird like that. And she knows that Jesse doesn’t want that either, because who _would_ want to have that conversation at three in the morning? She pats at the seat on the couch beside her, pulling her blanket up to her chest to make more room for him. 

“Oh, thanks, but there’s no need”, Jesse grins, and drops his things on the floor _beside_ the couch.

She folds her arms. “Jesse, I _know_ I didn’t just spend two weeks trying to convince you to value your feelings over anyone else’s for you to tell me you’re fine with sleeping on the floor. I _don’t_ care if you take up half the couch if you wanna sleep up here with me”. 

He shrugs, laughing. “Oh, no, I meant it like, there’s no need because I _like_ sleeping on the floor. Reminds me of when my friends used to sleep over all the time when I was younger.” He kneels down to fluff out his pillow, and crawls under his blanket as though it were a sleeping bag. “Matter of fact, sometimes when Nate and I stay up super late watching movie marathons, we just end up sleeping in here, since it makes less noise than trying to sneak back into our bedrooms.”

“Well, okay, but it’s your funeral,” Lake teases, lying back down herself. “But don’t come complaining to me tomorrow morning when your back hurts”.

Jesse pouts at her, and it’s a lot funnier than it should be, because his head is the only thing sticking out of his blanket. “Ouch,” he pretends to mope. “I guess I shouldn’t complain to you about my broken heart, either”.

Lake has to cover her mouth to prevent herself from laughing loud enough to wake everyone else up. “Go back to sleep, you dork, you’re gonna make me wake your whole family up”.

“Oh, but I _can’t,”_ he mopes, sitting up to dramatically lay his wrist across his forehead. “However _could_ I, with this sore back of mine”.

“Don’t make me throw my pillow at you”, Lake laughs, struggling to keep her voice below a whisper. 

“Fine, fine, you win”, Jesse replies in mock defeat, and lays his head back down on the pillow. “But I really can’t sleep”. 

_Yeah, and I’m starting to think that I might never get back to sleep either._ “Well, is there anything that usually helps you when you can’t sleep? Y’know, a cup of warm milk, flipping the pillow over, stuff like that?” 

“Well, yeah, but…” he brings his blanket up to his nose. “You have to promise not to laugh.”

“It’s three in the morning, Jesse, nobody can make that kind of promise”, she replies dryly, but she’s smiling, like she’s already struggling not to.

“Right….” Jesse sits up and turns towards her. “Anyways, what usually happens is that I go into _Nate’s_ room and bug him until he wakes up.”

“Nate? Isn’t he your younger brother?”

He shrugs. “Yeah, but it’s all part of this deal we’ve had since we were little kids. Nate comes in and bugs me when he can’t sleep, and I go in and bug him when I can't sleep. We wake each other up, and we just…..ramble aimlessly, until we feel like we’re ready to go back to our own beds. I think when we were really little we thought that if we kept talking and talking, all of our thoughts would just spill out of our heads until they were empty, and having empty heads could help us sleep better.”

“That’s funny,” she snorts. “I thought your head was always empty”. 

“You wound me, Lake” he grips the chest of his pajama top. “Say what you may, but it always worked, so we never bothered breaking the habit.”

“Then what makes tonight any different? Why _not_ go to Nate, instead of me?”

His teasing smile softens at her question. “Because you have interesting things to say”. 

Her cheeks tint a dark gray at the response, and he takes her lack of response as an invitation to keep talking. “I want to get to know you better. You’re my _best friend,_ Lake, I wanna know everything there is to know about you. You’re always talking about how Tulip used to do this, and you hated it when Tulip did that, and I get it, maybe you haven’t been around long enough to know everything about yourself, but I wanna know about the things that you love. I wanna know about the things that make you tick”.

Her blush worsens, and she tries for a reply, but all her mouth is willing to do is open and close a bunch like some sort of dumb fish.

“...If you’re okay with that.”

That’s enough to break her, and she’s laughing again. “With talking? Of course I’m okay with talking, you dork”. 

“Oh, good, good…” he sighs, and if it weren’t pitch black in the room she could swear he was blushing too. 

“Well, what _do_ you want to talk about? Everything about me is _so_ much to get through, after all”. She smirks, resting her elbow on the armrest of the couch and resting her chin in her hand.

“Well…” he relaxes his posture, seemingly eased by her sarcasm. “I guess...the thing I’ve been wondering the most about you is what happened to you on the train”. 

She sits up, blinking. “What, you mean with Sieve and Mace? I thought I already told you about that”. 

“Oh, yeah, you did, but that’s not what I meant”. 

She tilts her head. “You’re losing me here, Jess.”

“I mean...you jumped off of a train, Lake. You dragged around half of Mace by your wrist for a few days, and put together he’s...what? Twice your weight? He was almost a foot taller than you, wasn’t he?”

“...Yeah? What’s your point?” 

“My point is...you’re the toughest person I know, but didn’t any of that hurt? I know you don’t like being asked reflection questions, and I promise I won’t push if it’s too personal, but…” he sits up, bringing his knees to his chest. “Can you...feel pain?”

Well _that_ certainly wasn’t what she was expecting him to ask.

“I’m sorry,” he cuts in, like he’s suddenly gained the ability to read thoughts. “That was super out of place. I just...worry, sometimes.” He raises his hands into the air in defense. “N-not that I don’t think you can’t defend yourself, or anything, but I just…” 

“No, no, it’s okay” Lake sighs. “You’re actually not that far off. It was tough. It’s actually pretty sweet that you were worried.” She shrugs. “And yeah, to answer your question, I can feel pain. I’m not the kind of person who goes around looking for sympathy for anything, though. It’s just what I’m used to. If the Flecs get any whiff that you’re injured, or weak, or vulnerable for the taking, and they’re going to jump out from the next thing they can find and grind you down to dust.”

There’s a pause, and for a moment Lake is wondering if _she_ went too far, until Jesse speaks up again.

“Well, in that case….” Jesse chooses his words as carefully as he can, “can you feel other things, too? Like, can you feel really cold, or get really hot? I mean, I know you can’t get goosebumps, and you can’t get really sweaty, but could you, hypothetically?”

She’s laughing again. It’s incredible, really, how quickly he can lighten the mood of a conversation. “You’re saying that like hot and cold are emotions, Jesse. I’m made of metal. Of course I can’t get hold or cold like you.” She pauses for a moment. “I mean, I guess in extreme conditions, I could probably freeze, and gather frost, or I could melt, if I were to catch on fire, or something, but no, as a general rule, I don’t really feel hot or cold”.

“What about...soft things? Can you feel those?” He asks, and stands from the floor to sit beside her on the couch. He rubs his hand along the end of her blanket. “This is the coziest blanket in the house. Mom looked for it in her room for almost an hour because I insisted on giving it to you.

“Hey, well now you’re not giving me _enough_ credit”, she teases, and bunches the blanket up closer to her. “This blanket is _wonderful._ Give your mom my warm regards”. 

“Will do,” he smiles, and scooches a bit closer to her. There’s another quiet pause, and Lake notices Jesse’s hand twitching, and she’s sure he’s about to apologize for “the continuous pushing”, or something, but then he audibly sighs beside her, and there’s no way she could’ve predicted what he’s about to do. 

He reaches for her hand, and cups it between both of his own. “How about…” his voice cracks, and he clears his throat to correct it. “How about this?”

She can feel her cheeks burning again, and she’s never felt more grateful to be talking in a dark room. _Wonderful. Fantastic. Home._

“Warm”, she replies instead. “And soft”. 

He chuckles, lightly, and scoots ever closer. “Do you mind if I…” he starts, but his voice cracks into thin air before he can finish his question. He sits up on his knees to fit on the couch better, and slowly, but hesitantly, he reaches forward and places both of his hands on her waist.

The sudden gesture makes her jolt, mostly out of surprise, and he retracts his hands immediately. “Sorry”, he murmurs quickly, and turns his gaze elsewhere. But she shakes her head, takes his hands back in her own, and guides them back to where they’d been on her waist. He whips his gaze back towards her so quickly that she can feel a whiff of air _swoosh_ between them. 

“It’s okay”, she whispers. “It feels nice. It just caught me a little off guard”.

“O-oh.” is all he can muster. “Sorry”.

She laughs, and she cups his face in her hands. “Jess, I just told you that it’s okay. You gotta learn to stop apologizing so much or you’re gonna end up on that train again”.

He giggles at that, and he moves his arms from around her waist to around her shoulder. “Sorry,” he whispers a third time to her, definitely just to screw with her, and she’s snorting in laughter again. Her hands slide from his face onto her lap, and suddenly he’s laughing too. It’s a good laugh, the kind that makes you grip your stomach and wipe at your eyes to stop yourself from crying. It’s messy, and it’s impossible to keep quiet, and when they can finally calm themselves to silent giggles they’re sitting closer than ever, resting their foreheads against each other.

“Could I try just...one more thing?” 

“Well that depends on if you’re gonna apologize to me ten seconds after you do it”.

“Don’t get me started again,” he says, jabbing an accusing finger in her direction. “I just got myself to stop laughing”.

“....Sorry”, she replies, in a barely contained snicker, but takes a deep breath so she can actually answer his question seriously.

“Yes”.

He sighs, and he places his hands onto her shoulders, gripping them lightly, and he leans in and gently presses his lips to hers. He kisses her softly, tentatively, like he’s never kissed anyone else before, and pulls away after the briefest of moments. It’s like that little peck awoke something in him, however, because the next thing she knows, Jesse’s closing his eyes against her, taking her cheeks in his hand as he leans in again, and kisses her twice more, on the edges of her lips. Once he’s satisfied there, he pulls away, but returns to kissing the center of her lips, just as softly, and just as sweetly, but this time with a bit more confidence. And though the whole ordeal couldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds, when he pulls away and opens his eyes to look at her she feels as though it’d been hours.

He swallows. “H-how about that?” 

“Mmm,” she replies, incapable of anything else. “Nice.” 

His eyes shine so brightly at that response that she swears she can see them sparkle. “Nice?” 

She nods. “Nice,” she repeats. “Kinda tingly, and fuzzy, and weird,” she shrugs, “but a good kind of weird”.

“W-well, can I…?” he fumbles, and she giggles.

“Yes.” 

“Good,” he replies, and he leans forward to kiss her again. It’s a bit rougher, this time, but it’s barely enough to notice. He presses a soft kiss to her lips, and another, before he moves onward to kiss her cheek. He presses a number of short kisses to her cheek, and she has to repress giggles and snickers because it _tickles._ He grins against her, which honestly tickles even _more,_ and she has to cover her mouth with one of her hands when he moves on to kissing at her jaw.

“ _Jesse-”_ she squeaks. “ _Jesse, I’m gonna wake your parents, or Nate, or-”_ she tries, but he ignores her protests, and kisses the space between her jaw and her neck. She bites down on her lip to suppress her laughter, but the more she seems to suppress, the more he seems to press on, leaving progressively more and more kisses around her chin, around her neck, and down towards her shoulder. It’s agony, and there’s practically tears streaming down her cheeks, repressing these fits of giggles, but he ignores her still, kissing his way back up to her face. 

“Jesse Cosay, I swear to _god,_ I’m going to murder you as soon as I wake up tomorrow morning”, she attempts to protest, but all it gets out of him is a brief hushed laugh against her neck before she continues.

She realizes, far too late, that she can probably just push him off of her any time she wants, if she really wants him to stop. But she just can’t bring herself to do it, because the more she tries to get away, the more he kisses her, and the more he kisses her, the more she laughs, and it’s the happiest she’s felt in her entire life. And she’s sure that Jesse realizes it too, to some degree, because the more he kisses her the more he struggles to repress his own laughter. 

Gradually, but surely, his kisses dissolve away until he’s left laughing so hard that tears are streaming down his face. And maybe it's because she knows exactly how he’s feeling, or maybe it’s just because it’s so late, but it’s not long before Lake finds herself dissolving into silent hysterical laughter as well, curling up against Jesse to ride it out together until they exhaust themselves to sleep.

  
  
  



End file.
